Meet Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana justice of the peace who in an amazing act of time travel is making headlines because he refused to marry an interracial couple.

Bardwell, channeling 1949 claims that children from interracial couples are discriminated against, and that in his experience interracial marriages don’t last long anyway.

“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Keith Bardwell told AP. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”

Apparently though, somebody should think of the children! “There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage. I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”

“But I’m not a racist…I try to treat everyone equally” he helpfully added.

Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32, are considering filing a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Justice Department.

"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009," said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzman. "The Supreme Court ruled as far back as 1963 that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry."

I'm not all that familiar with the American legal system, but isn't it the law that determines wether or not two people can get married and not one person who is supposed to inforce that law?

Two things strike me in this story:

1. This man doesn't think he's wrong. He truely seems to believe he is doing the right thing by refusing to marry this couple. And therefore he doesn't see the abominable character of his choice. On a side not: I have read testimonies of children from interracial mariages who have a sense of not belonging; they aren't black and they aren't white and sometimes that is hard on them. Some black people mock them for their light skin and some white poeple for their brown skin. For someone like this Bardwell it's not that weird of a thought to try and solve this problem by not marrying people from different races. Especially since he believes interracial couples don't last long to begin with.Don't get me wrong though, I'm not defending him. Obviously the problem lies with the mocking of interracial children and not with the children themselves. Bardwell is trying to make the world a better place by denying -in his eyes- sad people their right of existence, rather than trying to improve their lives. And of course that doesn't make sense.I'm just saying though: racism isn't about the colour of ones skin; it's about the consequences people seem to link to that colour. For Bardwell black + white = unhappy children and unsuccesful mariages. He doesn't believe he's a racist, because he doesn't hate black people. And I believe him when he says that. He doesn't hate them. He just believes that they shouldn't be given the choice to marry someone from another race. He thinks he's just being rational and that's what scares me.

2. I hate how people always trie to prove they are not racist by counting the number of black friends they have.

I'm not all that familiar with the American legal system, but isn't it the law that determines wether or not two people can get married and not one person who is supposed to inforce that law?

thats exactly how it is supposed to be. The law is supposed to be inflicted as if the people were invisible, and they were a walking pile of rights.

Personal opinion is supposed to be absent. On a side note, I wonder what experiences he had that made him feel so strongly of the issue to make him even care enough to keep these two folks from marrying.

On a side note, I wonder what experiences he had that made him feel so strongly of the issue to make him even care enough to keep these two folks from marrying.

His daughter dating a Black dude.

But seriously:

DaPriest wrote:

Bardwell, channeling 1949 claims that children from interracial couples are discriminated against, and that in his experience interracial marriages don’t last long anyway.

Every child will face some form of discrimination at some point in their life. Kids are stupid and mean. It's just a part of growing up. And the majority of marriages are going to fail regardless of whether or not people are of the same race. And this:

DaPriest wrote:

Apparently though, somebody should think of the children! “There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage. I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”

This statement leads me to believe that he doesn't actually have "piles and piles" of Black friends. Take it from someone that's the product of an actual, real-life mixed marriage, in my experience, Black folks don't have a problem accepting people who are only partially Black as full-fledged members of the Black community. Example: I'm pretty sure that at least 90 percent of Black grandmothers now have a framed picture of Barack Obama somewhere in their house. Someone should do a study. I mean, if you want to annoy a Black person, try telling them that Barack Obama isn't really the first Black president.

...shame that a judge uses his own "experience" (locally acknowledged) as a reason as to not marry the couple. It is unfounded and a gross mismanagement of his position. Who knows how many times he has pulled some shit like this before...he should step down.

...shame that a judge uses his own "experience" (locally acknowledged) as a reason as to not marry the couple. It is unfounded and a gross mismanagement of his position. Who knows how many times he has pulled some shit like this before...he should step down.

BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana justice of the peace who refuses to marry interracial couples resigned Tuesday, after weeks of calls for his ouster from civil rights groups and several public officials, including the governor.

Keith Bardwell quit with a one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne: "I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."

Gov. Bobby Jindal called Bardwell's resignation "long overdue."

Beth Humphrey, who is white, has said she and her now-husband, Terence McKay, who is black, received their marriage license from the parish clerk of court, where they also got a list of people qualified to perform the ceremony. When she called Bardwell's office on Oct. 6 to ask, Humphrey said Bardwell's wife told her that the justice wouldn't sign their marriage license because they were a "mixed couple."

When questioned, Bardwell, who is white, acknowledged he routinely avoids marrying interracial couples because he believes children born to them end up suffering. In interviews, he said he refers the couples to other justices of the peace, who then perform the ceremony, which happened in this case.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said in an October interview with The Associated Press. "I think those children suffer, and I won't help put them through it."

Bardwell didn't return repeated calls Tuesday to comment about his resignation, which followed calls for his removal from officials including Jindal and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

"We're saddened that it took national attention to this issue, which was decided back in 1967 by the Supreme Court, and also that it took public admonishment from other elected leaders in order for him to resign," said Laura Catlett, a lawyer for Humphrey and McKay.

Jindal said Bardwell made the right decision.

"What he did was clearly wrong and this resignation was long overdue," the governor said in a statement.

Landrieu said Bardwell's refusal to marry the couple reflected terribly on the state.

"By resigning ... and ending his embarrassing tenure in office, Justice Bardwell has finally consented to the will of the vast majority of Louisiana citizens and nearly every governmental official in Louisiana ... We are better off without him in public service," she said.

Humphrey and McKay have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Bardwell. Catlett said the resignation won't stop the lawsuit, which also names Bardwell's wife as a defendant.

"This does not in any way change the fact that he, with his wife's help, discriminated against an interracial couple while he was a public official," Catlett said.

Bardwell was elected in 1975 as justice of the peace in Ponchatoula, La., a town 55 miles north of New Orleans. His term was set to run through 2014, and he had said that even before the flap, he hadn't intended to run for re-election.

...shame that a judge uses his own "experience" (locally acknowledged) as a reason as to not marry the couple. It is unfounded and a gross mismanagement of his position. Who knows how many times he has pulled some shit like this before...he should step down.

This comes off like he was already well-known for doing some other fuck shit before this issue. Ah well, good riddance.

...shame only a few people catch statements like this, but notice how it was reported that he "routinely" deny interracial couples...further investigation needs to be done and more people should be punished or fired...

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